Daily Times

NAWAZ Sharif has been ousted from the Premiership for the third time and the top leader of most popular party of the country has no chance of a comeback unless the parliament amends the law that bars him from holding any public or party office.

The two-members of the bench, Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa and Justice Gulzar had already decided against Nawaz on April 20, 2017. But three judges – Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed and Justice Ijaz ul Ahsan – went for further two-month investigation through a Joint Investigation Team (JIT), before aligning with their senior colleagues.

The Panama Papers controversy came to lime light last year with the publication of 11.5 million secret documents from Panamanian Law Firm Mossback Fonseca documenting the offshore dealings of many of the world’s rich and powerful. Three of Sharif’s four children – his daughter Maryam and sons Hassan and Hussein – were implicated in the papers. At the heart of the case was the legitimacy of the funds used by the Sharif family to purchase several high-end London properties via offshore companies. The allegations sparked a media frenzy over details of the lavish lifestyle and luxury London property portfolio of the Sharif family.

The court in an earlier judgment found enough reasons to carry out an in-depth probe by a six-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which reported ‘significant disparity’ between the family’s income and lifestyle, and unearthed fresh claims over Sharif’s links to companies based in the United Arab Emirates.

The JIT found during probe that Nawaz had been an office bearer of his elder son’s company in UAE, something he had not declared in his nomination papers for the election 2013. The court cited it as the reason for declaring that he was “not honest’ and hence ineligible to continue as premier, as per Article 62 of the constitution. He is disqualified as a member of the parliament so he has ceased to be holding the office of Prime Minister”. The Court’s ruling saw political uncertainty take hold once again.

Selective accountability is not in line with the demands of justice and good governance. The decision to disqualify the Prime Minister was legal and sound. However, its constitutional basis leaves much to be desired

The Supreme Court called on President Mamnoon Hussain to take the necessary steps under the constitution to ensure continuation of the democratic system.

All political parties need to understand that hate-politics is not in anyone’s interest. Collective efforts are needed to establish rule of law and constitutional approach to finding solutions to our national challenges. We still need to act on national plans to get rid of the menace of terrorism, extremism and negative thinking. Positivity is Pakistan’s most urgent need on the road to peace and prosperity. That is the existential question for Pakistan. We need to understand and learn from mistakes. We need to be optimistic about our future.

There is a great need for tolerance, unified national outlook and politico-economic and social maturity. Our elites have to have soul searching and self-analysis to understand what the people need. Let us forget about conspiracy theory and the fallacious assumptions that lead to nowhere but confrontation and confusion.

Selective accountability is not in line with the demands of justice and good governance. The decision to disqualify the Prime Minister was legal and sound. However, its constitutional basis leaves much to be desired. There is need to clarify what ‘Sadiq and Ameen’ substantially mean. There will be barely any politician who is truly ‘Sadiq and Ameen’ to qualify for Pakistan’s premiership. The application of such terminology becomes impossible and in this case it had led to questioning of the logic of Supreme Court’s decision, which under a good constitution would be questionable. This is why there is a need to amend the constitution. The constitution has to differentiate between fiction and reality. Any student of law and government would know the need of laws and constitution to fit the structures and functions of society. The constitution of the country should be based on simple facts that are inherently applicable.

The people’s court is not a mob or a crowd with its typical destructive behavior. It is the electorate, supposed to be fully conscious of its responsibility. The electorate elects and its elected representatives are responsible for governance. It would be a chaos if the electorate interfere in the system of governance and create problems of law and order.

The writer is a former Director of the National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA), Government of Pakistan a political analyst, a public policy expert and an author. His book Post 9/11 Pakistan was published in the United States

Published in Daily Times, August 20^th 2017.